Matter of Facts: Riot Time!!!

[00:00:06] Welcome back to the Matter of Facts Podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. We talk prepping guns and politics every week on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Go check out our content at MWFPodcast.com on Facebook or Instagram. You can support us via Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners. I'm your host, Phil Ravelet, Andrew, Nick are on the other side of the mic, and here's your show. Surprise!

[00:00:33] So, like I was telling Nick right before we ran the show, I killed the normal intro and outro videos off of this particular stream as an experiment to see if YouTube will actually like play nice with us for once. And so far there's one of y'all in on YouTube watching this. I'm pretty sure it's Jim, and I'm pretty sure it's not AI.

[00:00:51] Good. So, if this stream makes it more than five minutes, then I think my exuberance in putting, you know, scary pews in the intro might be what's been killing the streams lately. Or it could just be random bullcrap. Could be both? It could be, but just remember, you know the differences between screwing around and science, right? Writing it down.

[00:01:15] You have to measure your results and write it down. So, here we are conducting a scientific experiment of whether or not YouTube shuts our stream down because we took away this scary intro. Mm-hmm. Thanks, Jeff. Hey, Jeff. Thanks, good on you for looking out. I actually have a view here where I can see like numbers for who's in the YouTube and the Facebook feed, and so far I've got one of each. So, no intro. If we make it five minutes, that means we're doing okay. I like it. But anyway, I'm Phil. This is Nick. Andrew's not with us today.

[00:01:46] Andrew is busy delivering a number of pallets of bricks to various downtown locations. So, he told me that, you know, he needed a little bit of extra spending cash, so he was moonlighting with a brick retailer. And they have had so many freaking orders from Los Angeles and New York City recently, they decided to hire some temp help. Weirdest thing. No earthly idea who's doing that much bricklaying in those two cities, but apparently it's been a thing lately. Yeah, I mean, what can you do? We all could use a little extra spending money now and then. Good on him. Get after it, bud.

[00:02:17] Yeah, I'm just kind of curious. Like, must be building brick walls left, right, and center in those two cities right now for all that. No, they're very anti-wall traditionally. Oh, that's right. So, I wonder what they're using the bricks for. Pavement. Anyway. Patrons! Thank you to the patrons for supporting our sociopathy, keeping the bills paid and the wheels on the bus. It is only because of you I can flagrantly and repeatedly thumb my nose at YouTube unless I'm conducting an experiment like I am right this minute,

[00:02:46] without fear of losing my entire livelihood. Mm-hmm. Merch! If you'd like to support a small business and support this small business and buy funny little t-shirts, the links to the merch are in the show description. I need to grab those shirts and be better about, like, you know, trying them on, except that I've gained 20 pounds and they don't fit anymore. So, I might have to support Chris and Tiffany by buying new ones. Or support myself by losing the 20 pounds. Both. Either or.

[00:03:15] Probably both. Probably both. So, Cypress Survival is, it's a fun little nonprofit. We teach preparedness topics in the local area in Southeast Louisiana. And on the 14th, which is two days from today, we're having our first quarterly event we're calling Lunch and Learn. So, registration's closed. If you missed it, you missed it. But we will be doing these more, you know, more throughout the year.

[00:03:39] But the idea is that we bring together a group of people, mostly people that we met from our Get Ready event several months ago. We eat lunch, we BS, we get to know each other, we hang out. And in the process of that, I'm also going to teach a more in-depth version of the food prepping class that I taught at the Get Ready event. So, instead of it being like, you know, a couple of bullet points in a 50-minute topic, this would be an hour. Nice. And Nick, you'll be proud of this.

[00:04:07] Remember when you, me, and Andrew talked about intro to food prep? We built our menus out and everything. That is in this. It's a perfect example of doing it on a budget. Yeah. And I integrated a lot of the things we talked about. I integrated some things that, like, Stuart brought to my attention. Nice. Stuart very, very correctly pointed out that if you eat an unvaried diet for too long, you start developing dietary deficiencies, vitamin deficiencies.

[00:04:35] So I have some mitigation strategies installed in that chat to help offset that with also some, you know, very, very frank advice that if we're talking about like two weeks of preps, vitamin deficiencies don't usually show up in two weeks. Yeah, unless you have a pre-existing health condition, which, hey, don't we all? So talk to your doctor about how you should eat for those and plan accordingly. Yeah.

[00:05:03] And I also did a little bit of legwork to break down like calories per dollar with our recommendations and then the, um, some of the more common, like stereotypical prepper foods to just try to try to pound the point home of like, look, most people that first get into preparedness, they go for these things and you're just not getting a lot for your dollar. But you can get these things at your local Wally world and get a lot of value for your dollar and build up a food stock at a very reasonable dollar amount. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:31] That's one thing I haven't tried much is like those wise meals and stuff like that. I've always went with mountain house for dehydrated. I'm not gonna lie when it comes to dehydrated food. I'm going to be a mountain house convert for a very long time because I mean peak is good. Peak is very good. I haven't had a chance to try peak, but to me like the mountain house. Yeah. There's some of it in the preps, but I use it a lot for like camping. Yep. And if I'm camping, dadgummit, I want to eat something good.

[00:05:56] And the, the mountain house business biscuits and gravy is peak camping breakfast. Very good. Very good. So the topic for today is riot time. And if I thought we wouldn't get newt from YouTube faster than showing a pew on the show, I would have included the, um, a little blurb from a song from power man, 5,000 way back in my childhood called riot time. It would have been the perfect intro, but we definitely would have got a copyright strike. We would have got hit.

[00:06:25] I mean, we got hit with a copyright strike for fair use when we did the, uh, the breakdown of the civil war movie. Like I, we, we can't have any fun on this show. Somebody gets their feelings. Yeah, it's fine. But it is June, 2025. A Republican is in the white house. So it must be riot season again. Every time without fail, they will find a reason. Yeah. And I was actually talking to a very progressive friend of mine the other day about this exact topic.

[00:06:52] And, you know, he and I very often trade each other's points of views and he keeps me grounded in reality. And I give him an alternate point of view because in his friend circle, I don't think he gets that from anybody else. So statistically speaking, he probably doesn't in his media consumption either. Yeah.

[00:07:11] But, you know, a lot of the things I want to focus on in this show was like, like I said, and when I developed this show topic and I put it in the show notes, I really want to focus around like intelligence gathering, risk mitigation, things like that. Because to me, like, no matter what position you take on the nonsense that's going on around the country right now, I think we can all agree. We don't want our cars or our houses burnt to the ground and we don't want to get assaulted. Ideally. Yeah.

[00:07:39] I mean, I would be a much happier person if somebody didn't try to, you know, conk my brains out and burn my car to the ground. It is rather inconvenient having to buy a new car. And I am well over that free free concussion limit. Well, that and I have a second gen Tacoma and they're not making them anymore. And it would be quite a chore to replace a 10 year old Tacoma. It would. Unfortunately. So, but you know, you're right.

[00:08:06] This seems to happen every year without fail. Once the weather gets warmer, especially if there's a Republican in office and gee, wouldn't you know it? But all the bricks are showing up again palletized in the places where these demonstrations are supposed to take place. Not near construction. Conveniently. Conveniently, I might add. Yeah. Phil, have you ever been on a construction site downtown? Downtown? No. Yeah.

[00:08:35] I've been on construction sites like in residential areas. Yeah. So one, one thing I think you'll notice the difference. If you ever get the chance when you're walking around downtown and you see a building under construction, take a look at where they store the materials for those. Not typically outdoors where they're within easy reach because they tend to, they tend to sprout legs and walk away. They do. Typically they're behind a fence, usually with a locked gate and sometimes even with barbed wire, razor wire on the top.

[00:09:05] Yeah. Residential neighborhoods, not so much. So, you know, pallet of bricks just sitting on the corner where there's supposed to be a, an act, an activity, an active activity is a little out of the ordinary. I would say so. Yeah. So, importance of local intelligence. Like I, I, I want to compare notes with you on this because I'm like we're because of the no king events that are happening around the country on Saturday.

[00:09:33] Like you and I both have some of these things happening within a reasonable distance of us. And I imagine you and I are going to be looking at some of the same types of things so that we can be apprised of what in the heck is going on around us. So I'm curious to compare notes here. All right. You want me to start? Go for it. All right. Step one, your local Facebook pages.

[00:09:55] I'm not talking about like your friends and family. I'm talking about your insert town name for one, one, one, your what's happening town, your grew up in XYZ town Facebook pages, your class of 95 class of 2008 class of 2025, whatever. Group pages. Yeah. All these local group pages that you normally ignore because it's just Karen's throwing a shit fit about normal bullshit that you don't want to deal with.

[00:10:23] Keep an eye on them as we're coming up to these because you'll see people trying to organize on them. And usually it's not the violent people that you see trying to organize on these things, but they'll be your run of the mill people that the violent people try to hide behind and inside of. Because let's be honest, six people go out and try and bust up cars and light them on fire. Chances are pretty good. One of them is going to get arrested.

[00:10:48] Those six people in a group of 400 other people dressed in nondescript clothing with a mask on probably going to get away. Yeah. Traditionally. Yeah. And I would add to that in addition to just social media, frankly, Google. Yep.

[00:11:06] Because I'm going to tell you that I it took me literally 30 seconds knowing the name of these events to Google it and find exactly where and when these local events are supposed to be taking place close to me. So I was able to very quickly ascertain at least where their meetup places, where they're planning to march to, you know, like for me, the this one of these events is in New Orleans and I have no intention of going to New Orleans on Saturday, period, end discussion.

[00:11:36] Yeah. But the one that's closer to me, it's on the other side of town. I don't feel like I have a lot to be concerned about. I'm not going to go anywhere even remotely close to that. It's not a major metro. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's we're part of the New Orleans metro area. Technically, it's just fact that like it's south Louisiana, so it's all these big towns around a lake. Right. So they're all part of the same metro area, but it's not like you're, you know, a mile out of downtown New Orleans.

[00:12:06] No, but I think that's also the reason why they're having a separate event up here on this side of the lake, because, you know, otherwise we're separated by like 20 something miles of bridge. So I don't know. I think we probably will get a lot of people coming in from like Slidell and probably Hammond into the Mandeville Covington area. I if if the information I've got is to be believed and. It'd be kind of silly of them not to specify where they want everybody to show up for their protests.

[00:12:35] It seems counterproductive to a certain degree. I mean, unless you want to be an asshole and mess with them. Yeah, but I have a suspicion. I know where they're going to be and they're far enough away from me that I don't think I have an immediate concern. Sure. An immediate one unless things spread and move and go places you're not supposed to. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. So to that end.

[00:12:59] Other than social media, other than the Google, which thinking I've got I have I have two things. I got one that I'm going to personally be running right here at the house that will not come as a shock to you. So this one I won't be running at the house, but a great place you can check coffee shops. Mm hmm. Your coffee shop billboard, especially if you've got one of those artsy hipster coffee shops.

[00:13:28] Guarantee people are coming through there. Hey, man, some of them make a pretty good cup of coffee. And the one they do, one by me, coffee, the one by me makes a really good like lilac lemonade refresher with a little bit of caffeine in it that my wife introduced me to. Holy God, is that good? But they have those little billboards usually out in the front of the coffee shop where people put up stuff, you know, lawn care, child care, walking dogs, where to gather for whatever protest.

[00:13:56] Another good one, your community college message board. That's a good one. Your local community college message board. A lot of activists are still in college just because they have the time to be activists. Yep.

[00:14:13] But I'm going to probably have my scanner app on my phone turned on and have the notifications actually turned on because we've got a little thing we're doing for Father's Day on Saturday with my wife's with my wife's dad. So I won't be at home for part of the protests. And we will be in one of the towns where there is going to be an active protest. Wrong side of town. And it's pretty far. It's about three miles, four miles from where we're going to be. But what do you got?

[00:14:44] So my first thought, honestly, is I'll have a handheld radio tuned into our local AM, our local AM rebroadcast. Nice. So I will say that, like, even though I'll be the first to admit, I love my satellite radio. It's definitely a vibe. It's really, really cool to be able to put it on one radio station and listen to it across five different states. It's definitely first world privilege, but it's fun.

[00:15:13] But for something like this, I would want to tune in the local AM station or even better, the local FM transmitter that's rebroadcast to get because I want local sources of news. And it's reasonable to assume that someone on that station is going to be talking about foolishness in the local area, especially if it starts getting wild. Especially if they can make fun of it. Of course. Or if it bleeds, it leads. Oh, of course.

[00:15:38] If it gets attention, if it gets sponsored, if it gets ears listening to sponsors, they will talk about it all day long. But the other thing I'm going to do, honestly, is I'm going to take that laptop. I'm going to hook up two SDRs to it and two antennas, and I'm going to dial up SDR trunk. Yeah. So I know from experience playing around with SDR that I will not be able to hear the encrypted comms channels for, like, police dispatch and so on and so forth.

[00:16:03] But I also know that your local fire department channels are unencrypted. And if someone starts setting fires or bashing people's heads in... There's going to be some cross chatter on those channels. Yeah, you're damn sure EMS and fire are probably going to be lighting up. Plus, you can always look at the volume of traffic that is going through, not necessarily what they're saying, but how often are they talking on those encrypted police channels? That's almost... Yeah.

[00:16:30] And it's not as good as knowing what they're saying, but it's almost as good because you know when they're starting to get panicky. Yeah. Well, I mean, it works kind of like a heat map. It may not give you pinpoint intelligence to know that there's foolishness happening at this specific place, but the simple fact that those channels start to overwhelm everything else tells you there's some foolishness going on.

[00:16:52] And since, again, we have a reasonable suspicion of where these protests are going to take place because of the published information, we can just go ahead and assume it's on that side of town. More than that. Those two things, to me, gives me that early warning to know that, hey, this is not going to be just a bunch of people chanting and waving signs like something spicy is cooking off. Probably.

[00:17:16] And at the end of the day, it always comes down to the very first thing I intend to do, which is, do we have anything else to cover for local intel before we go to... No. Okay. The very first thing I'm going to do is obey the three stupids. Like, I have no need to go anywhere near these things. I have no need to hang out with any of these people, and I have no need to do any of the silly things they're going to be doing. I don't want anything to do with it.

[00:17:40] I don't want to be anywhere near it because this has always been kind of a touchy subject because, like, there are those people that get that start to think about the fact that, like, well, you know, we have to counter protest. We have to this. We have to that. And the thing I always point out to people is I'm like, yeah, that's valid. That's a point. But it's kind of like standing in the kitchen next to the oven and then being afraid of the heat.

[00:18:07] If you go to a protest, whether it's to counter protest or to join in the protest, there is a higher than zero chance you're going to get caught up in some nonsense. It's very possible. So very often, very often, the smartest thing to do is if you can avoid it is to do so. Yeah. You know, I understand where people are coming from with wanting to counter protest. I get it. I get it. I get it.

[00:18:32] But when you see these large leftist protests, especially ones that are organized well in advance, especially following the pattern that we have seen, especially following the violence that we have seen in some major cities in California and New York. You know, are you actually going to get any benefit out of counter protesting? Because number one, you're not going to change the minds of these people. No, you're not. No.

[00:18:59] And you're not going to change probably your mind if you're one of the people motivated enough to go protest. Less than zero percent chance. Right. You're probably not going to change the minds of the random passersby that you are additionally inconveniencing. And honestly, well, the only the only thing you will convince those random passersby of, especially if things, bricks start getting thrown and things start getting lit on fire, is that all these people are crazy and I want them all to stop. Yep.

[00:19:27] So, you know, and you're kind of putting yourself in a spot where you can be blamed for the violence beginning because not saying that it's the correct thing to do to blame you. But the leftist media is going to pillory you if you are going to these protests and you're wearing a MAGA hat and a fight starts. Look, you're you escalated it. You instigated it.

[00:19:55] You are going to be blamed in the media, rightly or wrongly. You're going to be convicted by the media before you ever get a chance to defend yourself. And you know what? Rittenhouse went to the to the protest in Kenosha to try and provide security and medical care for people. Look at how much time, expense and hassle he had to go through. I mean, a lot of the people that watch this show, I'm assuming are concealed carriers. A lot of our patrons are concealed carriers.

[00:20:24] If you bring your gun with you to a protest and you end up having to defend yourself and you end up having to shoot someone at that protest, you're probably looking at a similar legal battle. 100%. And I can tell you right now what the DA is going to say. Right. You went there looking for trouble. Yeah. And not not in even all that notwithstanding. And by the way, we have to loop back around what three students is or Stuart will get irrationally angry.

[00:20:49] The fact that I put up I put up what is it called a banner up without reading it for the audio listeners. And no, no offense. None at all. I appreciate Stuart for busting my butt and keeping me on track as well as he can. So the three stupids per Nick is what? Isn't this some Sada? It is. Or am I thinking Jeff? You know, I don't know. I have heard it from a number of places and it's never go stupid places with stupid people to do stupid things.

[00:21:19] Stuart will know who who this quote comes from. He was probably there when it first got said. It's it's a mantra that I hear all the time in in tactical shooting courses, in concealed carry classes, concealed carry renewal classes, self-defense videos online. You know, they may say it different ways, but basically what it's breaking down to is don't go to the downtown slums at 3 a.m. with your stupid friend that's known to pick a fight at every bar you go to.

[00:21:47] Yeah, because you're going there with someone who's probably going to cause a problem at a stupid time in a more dangerous location. You're asking for a problem to occur. You could have avoided that problem entirely by drinking in the back shed with your buddies instead and leaving your gun in the safe.

[00:22:07] Yeah. And and to rephrase this very slightly to like something that I'm I've said in the past when we start having discussions about defensive shootings and concealed carry is I always always tell people in like. Trek and I, I wouldn't say we argued. We disagreed one time because, you know, Trek's background is very much in the legal use of force rules and everything else. And I, I try, I attempted, I thought I did a decent job of turning a legal argument into a.

[00:22:38] A semi rational hypothetical that the lay person could apply. Sure. And the thing I told people is I'm like, OK, you're going to ask me in this situation, am I good to shoot? Yes or no. And my answer always is. If you're prepared to spend six months and twenty five to one hundred thousand dollars to keep your butt out of prison, pull the trigger. Yep. And here's the thing of it. Trek's argument was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like that, that, that has no basis in legality.

[00:23:08] And I'm like, you're right, it doesn't. But what it does do is it hopefully will make a person stop and think to themselves. Six months and a hundred grand. Is there another way to solve this problem besides shooting it? Yeah. Because I'm not going to lie. If I got to take six months, six months off my job, that is going to be financially crippling to my family. Even if I stay out of prison, it's going to hurt. We might lose the house. We're going to we're definitely going to have problems. I'm have a very freaked out wife for that amount. Oh, my gosh. Yes.

[00:23:38] So my kid is not going to have her dad for six months while I'm in and out of jail and, you know, in and out of frigging the legal system. And then the money it takes, if I can raise it, will take my retirement and loot our savings and everything else. Or it'll end up. I mean, I'm sure if I if push came shoving this weird hypothetical, my parents would do what they could to help me out. But my point is, it's good. We're going to be in exactly the same situation. This is that poor SOB from Michigan we interviewed about a year ago.

[00:24:06] And he literally had to he owned his house. He had to take out a second mortgage on his home to afford the lawyer fees to stay out of prison. Yes. And by any reasonable metric, he was well within his rights to shoot, but it didn't matter. So that's why I go back to the idea of if you're not willing to spend six months and 100 grand to stay out of prison, then you find another way to solve this problem besides shooting it. And usually that's enough to give a person pause. So I apply that here, too. I want to go to the protest.

[00:24:36] I want to counter protest and blah, blah, blah. Are you prepared to spend six months and 100 grand to stay out of prison if something goes wrong and you get blamed for it? And if the answer is no, you probably should stay home. Right. Is it important enough to you to risk spending a serious amount of time in jail and a serious amount of money? Yeah. And if it is, hey, all the power to you. Go. Do it.

[00:25:01] But go knowing what you're risking and go with the intention to avoid the additional risks. And by the way, if you're going to go that direction, I would advise you talk to a lawyer ahead of time to get one on retainer because lawyer on retainer is a lot more preferable to public public defender. It is. So that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying don't go.

[00:25:28] They try, but they try to get a plea deal. They don't try. Well, you know, they. Yeah, that's really what they're there for. They're there to give you a plea deal. If if you are guilty and you're pretty sure you're going to jail, maybe don't hire a lawyer. Save yourself the money, I guess. Yes. But man, you can spend an awful lot of money and still end up in prison. Jeff Jagg, juggalo paint defeats facial recognition. It does.

[00:25:57] Same theory as camera crush. Mm hmm. Hi. Same theory. Same theory is wearing one of those little plastic fingers attached to your finger. So you have like six fingers on one hand and it makes it look like it's AI. Yep. Yeah. So basically the idea behind the juggalo paint is you darken where your face would normally be highlighted by light and you lighten where your face would normally be darker in a bizarre pattern and a non repeating pattern. And then the computer can't really identify you as easily.

[00:26:26] Now, I'm sure computers are going to get better with that over time, especially if you have multiple angles and high definition video. But we do what we can. Yeah. You know, if you are going to go to a protest, we're seeing a lot of scuttlebutt online that the government is using drones and various other means to collect cell phone data off of the people as you're moving through the protest.

[00:26:51] So if you're in an area where something pops off, your cell phone is going to ping that you were in that area and it's going to ping what you were doing as far as a lot of these have like motion sensors and movement monitors. Were you running? Were you were you walking calmly? All this kind of data is going to be collected and potentially used against you.

[00:27:18] So, yeah, just as a general rule, if you're going to do if you're going to participate in hood rat activities, you shouldn't bring your government, your FBI spyware. Yes, you you should not equip yourself with a with a baby with a baby with a government mandated baby monitor. Right. That collects all of your metadata constantly. And that includes your drive to and from. And you are never going to convince me that those things really turn themselves all the way off when you hold the button.

[00:27:47] If you can't remove the battery, assume it is powered on 24 seven three sixty five. And as we've seen from night vision camera video of people walking around looking at their cell phones. That IR flash is taking a picture about every 30 seconds, whether you want it to or not.

[00:28:06] Yeah. On that note, pro tip, if you have one of these god awful little things on your wrist and you happen to have access to night vision or an IR camera, fire that up some night. Oh, dude, look, the first time the first time I like strap knots to my head, I happen to have my watch on and I had I turned off the always on screen.

[00:28:31] So to go completely black, it looked like I was holding a road flare in my hand because of the the IR camera on the backside that's constantly monitoring for your pulse rate. And it was just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Oh, it was it was I took one look at that and I was like, yeah, if you have to go under nods for any kind of hood rat reasons, all electronic devices are than the night vision. Get thrown in the trash. Absolutely. I mean, look, these things aren't designed to be discreet.

[00:28:58] They're designed to monitor you 24 7 365 and let you look at cat pics on the Internet. Yes, the cat pictures is definitely a feature, not a fault. It definitely is feature. But, you know, if you see a lot of these people advertising, if you're going to go to a protest, here's the things you should bring and here's the things you shouldn't bring. One of the things they always recommend you bring is a business card for your lawyer. That's telling.

[00:29:28] Yeah. Business card for your lawyer, a mask so that you can't be identified, written directions where to how to get to the protest from a different location. So like not your home, but say a gas station that, you know, and then written directions back to that gas station that, you know, where you can then navigate home afterwards so that they don't have your address like they're not going to be able to find that from any other identifying information.

[00:29:58] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go ahead and throw up your last bullet point situation awareness. But before we dive whole hog into that, I did just want to point something out. Go for it. So I personally, and if any of y'all out there don't, I encourage you do. I like to creep around in the dark places of the internet where people of my particular political social, social bin being libertarians are not necessarily welcome. Places like Reddit.

[00:30:26] I love to go to Reddit and just creep around. It's great for intelligence gathering. Oh, for some reason, dude, people on Reddit think that like, despite the amount of times they've been brigaded by people like, you know, social conservatives that show up in their threads and then get banned and then start 14 other accounts. So they continue to fool with them. Despite that, they still think they're talking in a vacuum and that no one is paying attention to what they're saying. But when I really enjoy this, which is adorable.

[00:30:56] Yeah, that is that is stinking precious. But I will just say for those out there that would be interested to know, I have to admit that over the years, I OK, so there might have been a time where rightly or wrongly, I might have derived from the news. Most of the tankies as like, you know, chubby basement dwelling, hilling neckbeards. To be fair, for a while, you were correct. Yes.

[00:31:24] However, I will say that those chubby neckbearded idiots are starting to get fairly organized and they have people running in their circles who I would say, based on what I'm seeing, certainly seem to have some experience in warfighting. Absolutely. If not with the U.S. military, with another one. Just kind of reading the tea leaves from what I'm seeing and the topics that are being discussed.

[00:31:53] They are they're discussing things like ditching your cell phones or discussing things like, you know, like not having anything on you that's identifying. They're discussing. I mean, even to the level of some people saying, like, hey, rip the tags out of your clothing so that you are totally sterile. These are things that we used to discuss in military circles when we were concerned with, like, intelligence and counterintelligence. Like, these are these are not average.

[00:32:21] This is not an average level of information for a person to have. It's not like a state secret. It's not like you have to have a top secret clearance to know any of this stuff. But the simple fact that people in these circles are discussing these things. The intentionality has changed. The level of sophistication has changed. It has. And that is in the last 10 years. It's escalated, especially in the left wing circles. I mean, yes.

[00:32:44] And I think I think that's why I wanted to talk about it since we're bringing up situational awareness is like there was a time when, quote unquote, the right that that weird nebulous cloud of people that everybody calls the right, which is everybody to the everybody that's not like, you know, outside of Mao Zedong at this point.

[00:33:03] But like they kind of had I don't want to say they had the monopoly, but they definitely had the lion's share of like military combat veterans, a lot of GWAT vets, a lot of people that traditionally were more libertarian or at least conservative minded, even at least centrist.

[00:33:17] And what I've been seeing in more recent times is that there is a trend developing where this this once very hyper partisan, I think a little bit insane group of people that like to break windows and blow stuff up and set fires. They're gaining a level of sophistication that is concerning. Yeah, it's it alludes to a trend where like, you know, it's been an it's been a known thing that ever since.

[00:33:45] I don't know, I don't know, 10 years ago when it was like the John Brown Gun Club and Antifa Redneck and all those groups, which is not the kind of rednecks you're thinking of. It's a communist militia group. Yeah. But my point is, like, that was an earlier effort for revolutionary leftists to arm themselves. But even then, it seemed like a half-hearted effort.

[00:34:06] What I'm seeing today in these, again, behind the curtain where I'm creeping is a level of intention and sophistication that alludes to the fact that they are getting more organized. They're getting a lot smarter with how they're doing things. So I would only say as we just go, as we finish out this topic of situational awareness, like, bear in mind that if you're if your whole mental picture of this group of people is that they're they're, you know, retard neckbeards that crawled out of their mom's basement.

[00:34:35] You are severely misjudging and underestimating a person and a group of people who probably mean to do you harm because their rhetoric has not gotten any soft. No. If anything, it's it's gotten more violent and more intentional towards violence. But the problem is that level of maliciousness is now matched with a level of sophistication to actually make good on the threats. That's that's the part of this that concerns me. That's why I personally am going to be listening for police activity.

[00:35:04] I'm going to be listening for friggin fire dispatch. I'm going to be listening for indications that a small protest spirals in something bigger because of it spirals on something bigger. It's on the other side of town for me, but it's not that far that it could come here. You know, you bring up 10 years ago. So I became aware of the John Brown Gun Club and Redneck Rebellion being active in my area. Oh, geez.

[00:35:33] It must have been a little over 10 years ago, maybe about 12 years ago when I was really starting to get into the shooting sports. And these guys, they were. They were wearing, you know, Chi Com chest rigs, 22 caliber bolt actions, old Mosin's and SKS here or there, you know, break action shotguns, your occasional like bird hunting shotgun. What I'm seeing now. A lot of century AKs.

[00:36:02] Yeah, a lot of century AKs on the ones that actually knew a thing or two. What I'm seeing now is guys in plate carriers with ARs and AKs. Primarily ARs, some AKs, some SCAR heavies, some FNFALs. You know, I'm heavier hardware. And instead of discussing.

[00:36:30] Ideology, they're now discussing small unit tactics. And I'm now seeing what I was seeing from my militia friends for a long time is they're starting to set up communications networks outside of Reddit. They're referring to their comms groups, their comms networks. I'm seeing a little bit more of.

[00:36:53] Say, not units forming, for instance, but people discussing how to form units of themselves. So I don't know if we are getting close to attempted communist revolution territory or attempted socialist revolution territory. But we might be getting close to like weather underground levels of issues with bombings and attacks in various places.

[00:37:21] We've already seen the attacks and fire bombings in various places. Thankfully, it hasn't escalated to IEDs or actual mail bombs. But I think we are moving in that direction, unfortunately. And I don't like being the guy to try to sensationalize this stuff. But look, they've been they've been firebombing Teslas and other cars that look sort of like Teslas because they don't like what Elon Musk is doing. All right. They definitely don't like what the president's doing. They definitely don't like what the conservatives are supporting.

[00:37:50] How long until they start, you know, doing more of that politically targeting a person instead of just ideologically targeting Musk? So a couple of things. First of all, got the comments. They've upgraded from tankies to drones. That's great. That's funny. But that is absolutely. Do not make the mistake of assuming these people are dumb. They are just as smart as you and I.

[00:38:15] They just have been convinced by a parasite of a parasite ideology. Yeah. But I'll tell you honestly, the thing that I'm noticing that makes me more concerned, see the the the the aspect you're discussing where you're talking about, like them wanting to form groups, them wanting to coordinate. That's worrying. But what I'm noticing is looking at their equipment. It has gotten a lot better. But it's not necessarily what they're carrying. It's how it's being carried.

[00:38:44] Some 10 years ago, I saw plate carriers that were completely misadjusted. I saw drop leg holsters down to a person's kneecap. I saw I saw a person who looked like they bought the stuff in an army surplus store and never worn it once in anger and they just threw it over their shoulder. Never wore it once in training. Yeah. But now what I'm seeing is worrying because I'm seeing gear that is fitted to the individual. It looks cohesive.

[00:39:09] Like you and I have talked to Andrew and I've talked in the past about how, like, you know, like I have a battle belt set up and it has been tried with a chest rig and with my plate carrier so that I can make sure that everything works together. Like, I don't have a problem where I can't get to my secondary because it hangs up on the plate carrier. I've got so many hours of my battle belt. I had to restitch it. Yeah. But that's my point. Yeah. What I'm seeing now looks like attention was paid to fitting this gear to these people.

[00:39:38] I'm seeing to be fair, though, things that look at the knowledge is more available now than it was 10 years ago. The gun tubers have made a fortune on on showing off all this info and how to train with this stuff. But see, I don't think it's just a knowledge. It's not because like you could you look 20 years ago, you could go to an army surplus store, get a whole bunch of old Atlas gear and figure out how to fit it to yourself. Because all you do is look up an old army team. The information was always out there.

[00:40:07] It just wasn't quite available. It did take more effort. But for a person that's motivated, a little more effort is not a problem. Not at all. What I think is happening now is that we're seeing a shift because this group traditionally used to like kind of trip over themselves because on the one hand, we have to arm ourselves to fight the fascists. But on the other hand, guns are bad. Guns are bad. Yeah. Well, they're they've turned that corner. Now they're obviously training. Now they're obviously making the case of, no, we have to be armed.

[00:40:36] We have to get past this sociopathic DNC sponsored nonsense of all guns are bad. We have to get past the nonsense and the, you know, the screaming about black guns are evil. We have to get past that. And they have. So now I'm seeing a group of people who are espousing violence, who are obviously equipping themselves for fight and who are more and more and more. I'm seeing things integrated that I recognize from the military side of things. I'm seeing things like body armor.

[00:41:05] I'm seeing things like I'm seeing communications gear being integrated into these crowds. There's somebody in the patron chat posted a group today that they were using GMRS radios at these protests to coordinate activities. Now, a GMRS radio is basically a grown up walkie talkie. It's not like a sink. It's not a sink guard, but it's the point. It's the capability that's being offered. It's the ability to communicate outside of line aside over a wide group. It's the ability to communicate and coordinate.

[00:41:34] And it's I'm seeing I'm just reading the tea leaves, guys. I'm looking at all these things together and I'm like, OK, when I look at the whole of these things that are being done and the capabilities being offered to this group by integrating these things into their ranks, I'm seeing the same thing we saw in the call the civilian defensive world. The you know, the earlier like the tech med and the tactical shooting world. I'm seeing that being integrated into these this group with this.

[00:42:05] With this verbiage and with this ideology. I agree. So I guess all I'm trying to say is like underestimate these people to you to your detriment, because the the things are doing today are the things I've been screaming at people for years to do to be able to protect themselves or protect their communities. Well, guess what? They're doing that. Yeah. And they're protecting. They believe they're protecting their community.

[00:42:31] You you brought up the pew tubers and this huge effort over the last 10 years to try to, like, get the civilians to arm themselves, get them to train. Congrats. By year. Congrats. Now, on the one hand, I'm kind of like, you know, my bad. I think everybody from the from the gay, retarded communist all the way to the friggin the guy on the far right, they all have a right to defend themselves. Oh, I agree. I think they all should be training. They should all have body armor and night vision if they can afford it. And they've got a fully funded emergency fund.

[00:43:01] Yeah. But but my my issue is, is when you win, when that person who takes that advice starts committing unprovoked acts of violence. Now, I'm like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You were going in a good direction until this. So we got it. Self-reliance was the direction. Violent. Yes. Unprovoked assault is not the correct direction. And unfortunately, look, I'm only I'm only 35.

[00:43:28] I only remember really back to the mid 2000s, like politically. Oh, it was a why it was a wild time to be alive, man. I know. I know. I've had a wild ride of adulthood. It's been a bit. Wait, wait, wait a second. You you you you bastard. You only politically remember back to the mid 2000s. I was a combat veteran in the mid 2000s. Got to throw those in there every now and then just to make your bones hurt. Listen, but my hip hurts every morning.

[00:43:58] My tailbone hurts. It hurts if I sit for more than two hours and my shoulder makes this god awful like old rusty ratchet noise. Just when I do this, I don't need you to make me feel any older, but please continue. So the look. There were always protests. As long as I can remember, there's been protests. I mean, back to the 60s, back to the 60s. OK, OK. You can go back further than that. I mean, hell. Dude, wait, what was it? Well, wait a second.

[00:44:30] 1920s, 30s bonus marchers. I mean, my point is, you can go back in history. There's been somebody upset about something. They got a bunch of the buddies to go protest. That's all. Rightly so. Rightly so. But what I'm seeing now compared to what I was seeing in like early to mid 2000s, 2010s, the level of violence at these protests is becoming more common and more severe.

[00:44:59] I mean, the Chaz Chop takeover zones. Granted, the president is now sending in federalized troops sooner to try and prevent these things from getting so far out of hand that they are firing hundreds of rounds into two teenagers driving a car because they didn't respect their authority. Yeah. I mean, not a good look. No, not a good look. And hey, you know what? Great job, leftists.

[00:45:27] You made our point for us that you're insane during the Chaz Chop shit and you're doing it again in L.A. waving a foreign country's flag in front of burning cars. Great. Really fantastic optics. Keep it up. You're making my point for me. But I'm seeing this stuff escalate. Interesting. I did not know that, Jeff. Yes, Jeff.

[00:45:54] So remember earlier at the show, I said it's very obvious that some of these people have gotten military experience and it wasn't probably with the U.S. military. So Jeff, there's been a lot. There's no one remember that a bunch of these guys joined the Ukrainian and Kurdish foreign legions. You know, I don't remember that, but I should.

[00:46:41] I would. There's a lot of people who went over there and went through hard ass combat training and they have brought those skill sets home and they are employing them to teach the rest of their little tanky brothers and sisters how to do the things they know how to do. It's exactly what happened after G. What? When you had this explosion of combat veterans all of a sudden filling up the friggin civilian defense mark. Yeah.

[00:47:09] The militia guys went from sniper training in the woods and hunting stands to running small running small unit tactics and room clearing drills basically overnight. Yep. And then you end up at the apex where you have like, you know, pretty average guys like us that are sitting on night vision and have friggin, you know, lasers on our friggin rifles. And we've got, you know, 12 IFACs built out.

[00:47:31] And I mean, like, that's what I'm trying to get across is that these guys have done that on a D in a different time period with a different military force. And they brought those lessons home. It's inevitable. I mean, anytime there's a military force that comes back from campaign, the civilian market is going to adapt to that. And in this case, some of them are leftists and some of them have some pretty messed up ideas. Yeah.

[00:47:59] But even their ideology set aside for just a moment, the part that kind of concerns me is that if you look at the wars that were fought in, say, Syria and Ukraine, they were fought by disparate for it, they were fought by small units against disparately large forces better that were better equipped. They were fought in very urban environments. They were, they taught these people how to hit and disappear. They taught these people how to hide in a crowd. Yep.

[00:48:27] The, the wars being, the conflicts being fought overseas right now. Oh, they're wars. They're wars. Let's be, let's be realistic here. They are. I mean, yes, Russia is, is showing that they are the retarded kid in the corner yet again, not being able to conquer a very arguably small country right next door to them. Good job, boys. You've shown everyone you're dumb. But to be fair, they are being propped up by basically the entire West. They are. But anyway.

[00:48:55] But still on a population to population basis, if the Russian military kept itself in anywhere close to operational condition, remove their corruptions. They should have steamrolled that country inside of a month. You know what Russia would be without corruption? An actual superpower. I was going to say, hey, I would say juxtaposition. Well, there you go. But anyway.

[00:49:25] So, yeah, I mean, as far as situational awareness, like I feel like we've already talked through, you know, like every, everybody should be well aware of what the threat is, what their capabilities are. Everybody should be well aware that these, these groups have the potential to have in people embedded in them that if not be U.S. military members, then are certainly people that have foreign combat experience. They're bringing in that level of training and experience.

[00:49:52] They have the capability to very suddenly generate a lot of violence very quickly if L.A. and New York City are any indication. They have certainly the emotional capability of it. Yeah. And quite frankly, they feel justified in any level of mayhem. So if you know what they're capable of. For the last 10 years, they've been guarded by the Justice Department and not prosecuted for their bad behavior.

[00:50:21] So they've seen no consequences in the large part. And if you think about it, I mean, most of these people have spent the last eight to nine months like frothing at the mouth on a daily basis because literally Hitler is, you know, becoming the president. Yeah. So Jeff Jagg. Civ Div is a great channel that vlogged his entire courage deployment. I might have to add that to my list.

[00:50:52] We should probably talk about it with someone that knows much more about drones than I do. But I saw. We do need to get somebody that understands drones on here. Yeah. I'm not that person. I look, I'd be the first one to tell you if I don't know squat about a topic, I'm like, nope, I'm not the one. Today is not the day. I know how to break a drone. But that's about it. But yeah. Hey, look, everything's a smoke machine if you use it wrong enough. Absolutely.

[00:51:21] But yeah, I mean, if we know where these protests are going to be happening and we know the capabilities of the people involved, then I think the only thing you can really do at this point is just keep it clear and stay out of the daggum way and just have your eyes and ears open. Yeah. Keep an eye on what's going on around you.

[00:51:38] And if you're walking through an area where there are large crowds of people, keep an eye on those crowds of people, because if they decide to go nuts, you're going to have to be moving quickly in the opposite direction or you're going to get caught up in it one way or another. And if you happen to see people with signs, flags, masks or carrying bricks, I advise you to pop ninja smoke and find another place to be as rapidly as you are able. Yep.

[00:52:08] Does that sound fair? Yeah. That's reasonable. You can buy CS gas on Amazon. Don't tease me. No, you can. And you can have it delivered to Illinois. Ask how I know. Oh, my wife is going to be so angry at you. Yeah. It's a mix of mace and CS gas.

[00:52:31] And it's not in a huge concentration, but you can get 60,000 square foot grenades by the case. So as we start to walk this topic out the door, now's the appropriate time to retell this story since you brought CS to your guys. so you've probably heard that everyone gets barracks tuberculosis when they go to base training right old musty barracks people stack on top of each other you know not not great

[00:52:59] ventilation everybody gets mother effing bronchitis they call that fraternity aids at college yeah in base training they just call it the cruds among several other less socially acceptable less youtube approved ways to term it but you know lung aids all sorts of stuff but anyway but yeah everybody gets bronchitis i had awful bronchitis i was i could not break a 16 and a

[00:53:25] half minute two mile run if you put a gun to my head couldn't i couldn't breathe i mean i was literally like i would literally run so hard that i would get so much phlegm and stuff built up in my chest i would have to stop puke it out and then continue running it was like that for weeks and then it's it's gas day we go to the gas chamber we're all lined up out front in lines my drill

[00:53:53] sergeant decided to mess with me and i learned later that what he did was he unscrewed my voice meter slightly so that i didn't have a fully sealed mask i learned that trick afterwards of course so um i go in through the gas chamber and you're supposed to have like you know a couple of minutes where you're you're using your mask and you can breathe and they call it the trust exercise like climatization your gear yeah yes well what i learned was that my gas mask was not fully sealed and i

[00:54:21] immediately started like coughing and sputtering and my my mucle my mucosal glands went absolutely ape shit ballistic my mask started filling with snot oh that's that's how bad this got how fast and then every time i'd cough i'd blow the seal on the mask get a nice fresh face full of cs gas and i mean this is this is 20 years later this is comical but at the moment i was like oh jesus type two fun

[00:54:52] what's type one fun one fun is fun while you're doing it type two is fun to remember later so there i am having a moment and then it comes to the point where like you have to take your mask off and you know they force you to breathe some of the gas well phil has already been dying from this freaking gas for about two minutes when i have to take my mask off as soon as i take the mask off my eyes immediately swell shut with tears my face is red as a tomato i am i am in full-blown distress

[00:55:22] i am not having a good time anymore i was questioning my life decisions that brought me to that moment in time they finally opened the door i only know the door open because through my clutched eyelids i could see daylight and i got pushed towards the door thank god or i would have died in that room right so long-winded story i walk outside i puke my guts up i blow i literally had a snot rocket hanging

[00:55:48] from my nose all the way down to my knees one solid snot rocket just waving back and forth and you know it's a big snot rocket when you can feel the weight penduluming back and forth on your nose for the five listeners that are sticking with me i appreciate y'all but after all that the next day i blew out like a 14 minute two mile run i was i could breathe cleared everything right out oh dude i had i had no freaking bronchitis for the rest of base training

[00:56:15] burn the cs tear gas the cs tear gas was like deforesting vietnam with freaking agent orange i mean it's just all the bronchitis all the mucus everything was gone i could breathe beautifully and to the point where that same drill sergeant that unscrewed my voicemitter before i went into the gas in the gas chamber he remembered me and i remembered him so um right before we have to do

[00:56:40] our last pt test he winds up being one of the administrators for the pt test he wasn't my platoon's drill sergeant he was another one and um he was he was giving me shit because i was a chubby guy in base training you know you got to give the chubby ones extra hell builds character and he asked me he's like so you're gonna be able to do this run i was like you want to send me back through the gas chamber clear my lungs out one more time i had to do extra push i bet you did

[00:57:10] mouthing off the drill sergeants and police officers and judges never usually pays i mean he went pretty easy on me i only had he let me wait till after the run before he smoked the crap out of me so you know at least he gave you one like ass well yeah he didn't want he he didn't want me to stay he wanted me to leave but you're gonna suffer on the way out oh yes there was there was definitely some suffering afterwards

[00:57:36] matter of fact you took me to um you took me to a pit that was filled with um shredded tires oh that's not as bad as you think it is until you realize that they don't take the steel belt out of the damn thing so as you're rolling around and doing push-ups you're getting chunks of steel belt just shoved into your palms and your back and everything else yeah it was it was fun it's good times

[00:58:02] good times type two fun type two yep all right so as we walk this one out the door nick did not nick reminded me the very beginning of the show we are not going to be here streaming in seven days next thursday like we usually are because it is time for that annual field trip so the matter of facts podcast and the patrons we all go out into the woods and we sing kumbaya and we hold hands we touch

[00:58:30] each other's butts and we do some other weird stuff there's like an initiation ceremony and some paddling and you have to wear a mask and it's all sorts of weird stuff yeah look it has to happen it's requirement at this point it it has to happen it builds character though it's good for you and um if you screw up at any point in time you get put on double secret probation until the next initiation ceremony and if you do it to somebody too many times they turn out like eddie

[00:58:58] with a really weird bin for taint picks but i digress it's fine i'm sure he's got a therapist he is a therapist yeah i think all therapists have to have therapists i'm pretty sure that's how that works that's why we have so many of them see because you got one therapist but they need a therapist so they train another one um good point good point so yeah we will not be here next thursday we will be taking our little show on the road we will record content while we are out of town and i will

[00:59:28] attempt to post it here and there i have either disappointed or alarmed my wife i'll find out just as soon as we wrap hopefully both we'll see if there's bruises come next week possibly but anyway matter of fact this podcast is going to go out the door we will not talk to you in a week but we will be in touch and when we get back down to terra firma we will get back with the show and the regular schedule but in the meantime i guess watch social media and keep an ear out for the podcast and we'll

[00:59:57] be dropping some content here and there on the road on the way to grandma's house now my wife is staring at me i'm a little you're definitely in trouble good night everybody bye y'all you